Except for saying "y'all" twice during a five-minute interview, there is no indication of a drawl whatsoever.

His hair is shorter this year, but the long locks he sported last year in the Saskatchewan Roughriders media guide made it look like he came straight from the set of Dazed and Confused.

Not exactly red state material.

Get him in his home and native land, however, and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers offensive lineman is a Texan through and through. When not spending time in Toronto or his hometown of Houston this winter, he was at the family ranch an hour outside the Texas city.

"I spent most weekends out there, just riding around on the ATV and shootin' stuff," January said. "That's all we do in Texas: drink beer and shoot guns."

The former Texas Tech Red Raider (he was a redshirt teammate of former Bomber quarterback Kliff Kingsbury) is with his third CFL team in three years. He started 14 games for the Toronto Argonauts in 2007 and was then traded in the Kerry Joseph deal to the Roughriders, with whom he started another 14 contests last year.

The Roughriders tried to re-sign January before he hit free agency, but he bolted for a bigger payday with the Bombers. Even though Winnipeg and Regina are both Prairie towns, January believes there are enough differences to make his move worthwhile.

January, 26, even consulted former Bomber and Roughrider O-lineman Mike Abou-Mechrek for a scouting report on the Manitoba capital.

"I thoroughly enjoyed playing with Abou-Mechrek," January said. "I thought that he was a great older guy. He taught me a whole lot of good stuff about the game.

"I know that he's played out here, and as soon as I was thinking about coming out here, I called him up and he told me that I would not regret the decision, that this is a great place. And he told me some of the stories from his stints here. And it's true. This is a great town, great fans, and I'm enjoying it."

January had been the only import O-lineman in Bomber camp until yesterday, when the Bombers acquired 6-foot-8 tackle Thaddeus Coleman from the Edmonton Eskimos for cornerback Willie Amos. January is still the front-runner for the right tackle spot, however, and that would give him the important task of protecting the blind side of left-handed starting quarterback Stefan LeFors.

"LeFors is a hell of a quarterback, and it'd be great to block his blind side if that's where coach wants me," January said. "I don't know that they know, and I don't know that I know. Nobody knows.

"Basically right now we've got seven guys that have played and have been around the league and can play a lot of different positions. So whatever group we go with, we're going to be really good."